Baby massage and oil .....

When you massage your baby, what oils should you use on your newborn’s skin?

1. Firstly, you should never use any kind of oil on your baby’s skin until they’re over four weeks old as it can damage the skin barrier.

2. When you do start using oil, you should use an unscented, organic vegetable oil. Babies don’t need (or want) to smell anything but their mum so there is no need to buy expensive scented oils for your baby.

3. It’s not a good idea to use mineral oil either as it is a by-product of refined crude oil to make gasoline and petroleum. Why would you want to put that on your baby’s skin?

4. Babies are constantly putting their hands and feet into their mouths - they test everything through their senses of taste and touch. If you use a high quality, organic vegetable oil then you know you’re okay. If you can eat it, you can (generally) put it on your skin!

5. The International Association of Infant Massage recently updated their website with news about recent research into olive oil and sunflower oil. Any oil that is high in oleic acid (olive oil for instance) should not be used on a baby’s skin as it could affect the infant’s immature skin barrier. Organic sunflower oil can be used on a baby’s skin.

6. I tend to use either organic coconut oil or organic sunflower oil. Coconut oil is light in texture and easily absorbs into the skin. It is also anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. It does contain oleic acid but in a relatively low amount (around 5-6% in coconut oil compared to 55% plus in olive oil). Sunflower oil may improve the skin’s hydration.

I give out small jars of organic coconut oil for parents to take home and use - in a session, we will use either sunflower, rapeseed or coconut oil, which I provide.

If you’d like to know more, contact me and I can arrange a call back.